"MAMAN BRIGITTE" IS THE HAITIAN VOODOO GODDESS WHO PROTECTS THE GRAVES IN CEMETERIES THAT ARE MARKED WITH THE CROSS. HER MASCULINE COUNTERPART IS" GHEDE". "IN HAITI, SHE IS CONSIDERED THE MOTHER OF ALL SPIRITS WHO ENTER THIS WORLD, AND THE GRAVEYARD IS CONSIDERED HER WOMB. SHE IS THE FEMALE GUARDIAN OF GRAVES AND IS SYNCRETIZED WITH "SAINT BRIGIT."

"BRIGITTE" IS A STRONG, IMPOSING WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A TOUGH TALKING, FOUL-MOUTHED WOMAN WHO DRINKS RUM LACED WITH HOT PEPPERS AND DANCES IN A SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE MANNER. SHE IS OFTEN SEEN IN THE COMPANY OF A BLACK ROOSTER. HER SYMBOLS INCLUDE A CEREMONIAL CROSS AND SCALES, WHICH REPRESENT HER SENSE OF JUSTICE. IT IS SAID THAT THE FIRST WOMAN BURIED IN A CEMETERY IS DEDICATED TO "MAMAN BRIGETTE. "

HER OFFERINGS INCLUDE: CIGARETTES, BLACK COFFEE, WHITE BREAD AND RUM SPICED WITH HOT PEPPERS. HER COLORS ARE BLACK AND PURPLE. HER SPECIAL DAY IS THURSDAY.

Dedun (or Dedwen) was a Nubian god worshipped during ancient times in that part of Africa and attested as early as 2400 BC. There is much uncertainty about his original nature, especially since he was depicted as a lion, a role which usually was assigned to the son of another deity. Nothing is known of the earlier Nubian mythology from which this deity arose, however. The earliest known information in Egyptian writings about Dedun indicates that he already had become a god of incense by the time of the writings. Since at this historical point, incense was an extremely expensive luxury commodity and Nubia was the source of much of it, he was quite an important deity. The wealth that the trade in incense delivered to Nubia led to his being identified by them as the god of prosperity, and of wealth in particular. He is said to have been associated with a fire that threatened to destroy the other deities, however, leading many Nubiologists to speculate that there may have been a great fire at a shared complex of temples to different deities, that started in a temple of Dedun, although there are no candidate events known for this. Although mentioned in the pyramid texts of Ancient Egypt as being a Nubian deity, there is no evidence that Dedun was worshipped by the Egyptians, nor that he was worshipped in any location north of Swenet (contemporary Aswan), which was considered the most southerly city of Ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, during the Egyptian rule over Kush, Dedun was said by the Egyptians to be the protector of deceased Nubian rulers and their god of incense, thereby associated with funerary rites.